Romney's attack on Trump could backfire in a serious way

Mitt Romney’s condemnation of Donald Trump gives renewed urgency
to the “Never Trump” movement of GOP officials and elders working
against their own frontrunner while at the same time presenting
new risks to Republican chances in November.

“Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless
as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American
public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and
all we get is a lousy hat,” Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential
nominee, said Thursday during a speech in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The billionaire’s “domestic policies would
lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and
the world less safe,” according to Romney. “He has neither the
temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal
qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining
city on a hill.”

The roughly 20-minute address was a full-throttle attempt to
paint Trump as a charlatan. Romney ticked off a laundry list of
areas where the GOP frontrunner isn’t all he’s cracked up to be,
from his various business ventures – “a business genius he is
not” – to foreign policy where Trump has proposed the “most
ridiculous and dangerous idea” of the 2016 cycle by suggesting
ISIS take out the regime in Syria.

Trump brings "the very brand of anger that has led other nations
into the abyss," Romney said.

The strong words are part of a coordinated effort to tear down
the former reality TV star, who has already won 10 nominating
contests and could rack up several more this weekend when voters
turn out in five more states.

Earlier this week, an anti-Trump super PAC
headed by a former Romney aide, announced it would spend at least
$1 million on new ads arguing the real estate mogul is a con
artist.

"The truth about Trump University? Donald Trump made millions,
while hard-working Americans got scammed," the narrator says in
a minute-long spot by Our Principles PAC. "Donald
Trump belongs in a 3 a.m. infomercial, not here," the narrator
adds, before an image of the White House flashes on the
screen.

On Wednesday, 60 Republican national security wonks posted a letter on War on the Rocks
declaring their opposition to Trump – the self-proclaimed “most
militaristic person” in the GOP primary. The defense hawks
rattle off a series of Trump foreign policy positions,
including his embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as
reason they are “unable to support a party ticket with Mr.
Trump at its head.”

But given the Teflon nature of Trump’s candidacy where he’s
shrugged off innumerable charges and attacks that ordinarily
would sink a White House hopeful, it’s hard to image the latest
assault, launched from the quintessential Republican
establishment, will have any effect.

In fact, one possible negative consequence of the collective
anti-Trump movement is that the billionaire decides to split
off from the GOP, taking with him the millions of new voters
who have turned out to support him.

Trump hinted at that very idea Thursday
morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

"The establishment — they want to throw that right out the
window. Because if I get out, all those people are going,
they're all going with me," he said. "I signed a letter with
the [Republican National Committee] and I said I want to do
this as a Republican," Trump said, flirting once again with the
idea of launching a third-party bid. "But I'm not being treated
the right way. I'm not being treated properly."

"Whether I ran as an independent or not, those people will
never go out and vote ... they didn't vote for Romney last
time," Trump said. "If the time comes and when... who knows
what's going to happen, but I will be able to get along. And we
will have a much bigger party, we will have a much more
inclusive party.”

The feud between the pair, which began on Twitter a few weeks
ago when Romney skewered Trump over not releasing his tax
returns, is likely to continue, given Trump’s thin skin. The
former Massachusetts governor predicted Trump would use every
“low road” against him in the days ahead, including possibly at
Thursday night’s GOP debate.

Indeed, during an interview with NBC’s Today Show, the
billionaire called Romney a “stiff.”

Yet Romney’s words could resonate, as evidenced by a statement
released by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the GOP’s 2008 nominee,
moments after the address concluded.

“I want Republican voters to pay close attention to what our
party's most respected and knowledgeable leaders and national
security experts are saying about Mr. Trump, and to think long
and hard about who they want to be our next Commander-in-Chief
and leader of the free world,” said McCain, the chair of the
Senate Armed Services Committee.